In the common room of the compound...

“What is this about Shur telling me that you are investing in a business? One that Hamet is trying to start.” I asked.

Darat shrugged, “Honestly Qaton? Even I’m not exactly sure. I feel like I kind of got carried away when the boy tried to explain his idea about some kind of fire starter” .

“You should know. You’re the one who gave him that coin.”

Darat defended his actions by saying, “True, true. Though I thought it was something that you would think was a good idea”.

“I mean, you’re probably not wrong.”

“Anyway, why did Hamet even ask you?” I wondered out loud.

“I thought you didn’t really care about interacting with Hamet after you learned that you couldn’t question him.”

“Is that his name now? Hamet? Anyway, don’t misunderstand, Hamet sought me out himself. But I don’t know why he did that exactly.” Darat said with a confused look on his face.

I smiled and said “Anyway, that’s quite a large amount you gave him.”

“It won’t do me any good to think about anymore. I don’t think I’m ever getting that coin back, unfortunately for me.”

“Don’t jump to conclusions, have some faith in the boy. He’s quick enough to surprise even me.”

“We’ll have to wait and see, I guess.” Darat said.

Hamet

A few days later…

It’s finally here.

After waiting a few days, Shur came around the compound just after I had woken up and I came to understand that my order was complete and was waiting in the plot that Darat had mentioned.

He gave me three silver coins after informing me. I kept it in my pocket, guessing that the change would be useful later on.

I waited until around afternoon to go back to the house.

As I approached the average sized house and its yard, I had yet to see any evidence of the delivery that Shur told me about.

“Had I been scammed?” I wondered.

Despite my worries, my fears were quickly allayed when I saw newly placed wooden crates inside the building itself. Unfortunately, this relief was contrasted by the foul smell that I detected as soon as I entered through the main door. The house smelled like excrement and rotting eggs, obviously the materials themselves were to blame.

But this did not deter me. I left the front door open in an attempt to ventilate the room and did my best to stay in control of my thoughts.

As I drew closer to the crates themselves, I noticed there were four of them alongside an iron shovel and a wooden wheelbarrow.

I felt relieved that my instructions were relayed properly but the putrid smell tainted any positive emotion I may have had with pure disgust.

Reluctantly, I opened the crates to find that they were composed of a crate of small charcoal bits, a crate of dung, a crate of yellow powdered sulfur and a crate of small twigs that each were about the length of my index finger.

With the smell being too much to handle, I quickly put the lids back on the sulfur and dung crates and used the nearby wheelbarrow to move the dung outside alongside the shovel I had acquired.

Fortunately, the putrid odor finally weakened after I had placed them a few meters outside the door.

Outside the house, the yard had tall grass with a small stream that flowed through it. The soil beside it was damp and had a healthy brown hue.

It was the perfect place to start the first process of matchmaking.

Using the wheelbarrow, I brought both the excrement crate and the shovel right next to the stream.

Then, I dug a hole large enough to contain all the dung stored in the crate and placed the dirt that came from it beside the cavity.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Slowly, I used the shovel to transfer over the fecal matter to the hole. After what seemed like an eternity it was finally done. I used the dirt that was adjacent to the pit to cover it up, spreading the remaining amount of soil around the grass evenly.

This process was to create potassium nitrate, a substance that remained after waste was processed by microorganisms.

Despite this being the most effective method of obtaining the stuff, the downside of this method was that it was a bit slow. It would take one month if I was lucky, during which I would have to constantly make sure the soil was damp by adding water to promote the growth of bacteria which would decompose the horse dung.

After I made sure that the house was secure and wasn’t about to get stolen anytime soon, I returned back to the compound. Qaton had heard me return and checked up on me. But as soon as he took a whiff of me, he went away and returned with a bucket of water. Understanding his meaning, I used it after he left the warehouse.

The next few weeks weren’t particularly noteworthy, Qaton usually gave me a list of reports that I needed to tally and when I accomplished them he taught me a bit of vocabulary. With his help, I slowly became more comfortable with the language.

He also generously gave me a set of clothes including a robe with a tunic, not unlike what he was wearing.

After I placed my old set of clothes in my chest, I returned the favor by accomplishing my work especially quickly that day.

This cycle repeated itself for around two weeks, I quickly became accustomed to this schedule and felt comfortable in it.

Qaton’s lessons did not make me as fluent as a native, and I couldn't even hold a conversation. But I could glean the meaning behind Qaton’s words and could express my intent well enough for him to understand, though he was forced to speak very slowly and clearly whenever he was talking to me.

There wasn’t anything notable to mention until I was startled awake one night. I had awoken by a thump a few hours after midnight, coming from the warehouse outside the room I was sleeping in. Being a bit curious, I slowly opened the door and I saw around ten unfamiliar men led by Qaton and Darat transporting Alham barrels from the warehouse to the door that led to the main entrance.

I inched my way closer to take a better look at the men, but Qaton noticed me and escorted me back to my room.

He ordered me to stay inside until morning and not to go outside until then.

Despite feeling the temptation to ignore his words and investigate on my own, I ultimately decided to listen to him and go back to sleep.

When I asked him the next day, Qaton refused to talk about it. He only bothered to explain anything about what happened until a week later after my persistent pestering.

He sat me down at my usual desk and grabbed the slate which we used to communicate. He erased the contents and drew a sketch of a map.

The drawing seemed to be one of a large sea that was surrounded with land that had small islands in it.

On the bottom of the map, he drew a circle and said that it was the town of Murgi, the one that we were in, which according to the map was very close to the sea.

I guessed the town was a few kilometers away from the ocean based on how much seafood was being sold in the village’s stalls.

Qaton then pointed to the middle of the map, and made another circle in the body of water. He pointed towards the circle and said “Alham”.

I asked him what that meant and he elaborated by drawing an arrow that connected the two dots with an arrow. The arrow started in the Alham dot and ended in Murgi.

I get it.

So, the alham comes from the sea?

Qaton then drew new arrows, he sketched around five that went from Murgi to different locations that went west, east and south.

So, Qaton’s group acts as a distribution hub?

I imagined that they used their connections to supply alham to potential buyers that had the funds. What Qaton was trying to tell me wasn’t very hard to understand, but I still had one question that was lingering in the back of my mind.

“Who are the Zi?” I asked Qaton.

He paused for a moment, trying to figure out how he was going to explain it to me.

After he decided on a course of action, he drew a point on an island near the Alham dot and labeled it “Kingdom of Zi” which was probably the home of the Zi. The island wherein it was the more eastern of two adjacent islands which were close together. Qaton drew large connections which implied that the Alham was also being directed to the Kingdom of Zi then it was distributed to the shores of nearby lands in every direction.

He explained that the Kingdom of Zi was a mercantilist state that dominated the Alham trade and has survived long because of their economic power.

So both our group, and this kingdom are involved in the trade of alham.

I think Qaton is trying to tell me that the Zi Kingdom has a monopoly over alham.

Then how do we even get our supply?

I pondered for a moment but then I saw how the nighttime operations, secrecy and the Zi’s monopoly fit together.

So they’re smugglers?

It’s the only thing that made sense. If the Zi have a monopoly and we somehow have a supply, Qaton probably has contacts that illegally sail Alham here without the knowledge of the Zi.

The need for secrecy and the fact that they only move the product at night make this conclusion more apparent.

That's interesting and all, but how did the Zi that came here factor into this?

I asked him about the Zi that were here, he pointed to the kingdom and then pointed towards the Murgi and said that “they were looking”.

Wait.

So the Zi found out about the smugglers?

They’re looking for Qaton’s group then.

This explains a lot.

But this isn’t a good situation to be in.

I realized I had to execute my matchmaking plan with absolute caution. I couldn’t allow myself to attract their attention and potentially discover the alham operation.

But this also motivated me, this new knowledge gave additional importance to my goal of trying to rid Murgi of the Zi. I needed to gather enough funds that I could try to execute my plan and make sure that they don’t come back here.

Speaking of the plan, the next two weeks came and went without a hitch. I went to the house everyday to ensure that the land where the dung was buried was at the optimal amount of soil moisture. If it was too dry or too wet it would take more time for the nitrification process to create potassium nitrate, that was time that I didn’t really have at the moment.

As I realized that it had been almost a month since I started the process, I made preparations to dig up the result of my labors. I went to the house as usual, away from the busy town center, and went to the patch of soil as usual. But instead of just checking it and adjusting its humidity, I opened the house and got the shovel that I used to bury the excrement in the first place.

If I was right, then the dung would have decomposed and left behind small white crystals that were indicative of ammonium nitrate being converted to nitrate. I knew that the process on average could take as long as a year or as short as a month if I was lucky. But I hoped for the best and started digging.

At first, I didn’t really see anything except regular soil. I noticed that some of it was a bit lighter in color than usual but I ignored it and kept digging. Despite my efforts, I didn’t see any pure white powder despite digging for it for around thirty minutes.

My face scrunched up in frustration as I thought of what went wrong.

The process was right, I was sure of that. But if that was the case, where was the nitrate?

I thought for a bit but then it hit me.

Obviously, it wouldn’t be totally pure. It would have to be mixed in something at some point.

As I tried to recall anything special about the soil, I remembered that some of it was less dark than regular soil. I scrambled around looking for the light soil until I came across some of it on the ground. I used my shovel to pick some up so I could examine it in more detail.

As I put it closer to my eye, I saw the soil was laced with small white specks which couldn’t be anything but the nitrate that I was after.

Bingo