Over the next few days, Kelton spent his free evenings not in the inn, but observing the town and its people, trying to understand exactly what was missing. He learned a couple of things that surprised him about the place he had been staying for the last few weeks. First off, it wasn't just the crew he had been placed with - in general, the people were small. Virtually everyone that Kelton encountered was short, both young and old. Also, although there were some farms, they were mostly livestock-related, and the farmers had to travel quite far to reach good grazing pastures. It seemed that they struggled to grow good crops in the last few decades. In fact, after speaking to several people, Kelton learned that the local farmers had not been able to grow wheat at all, and that many of their vegetables died or came up virtually inedible; it seemed the soil just couldn't support them any longer.

The food supply issues probably had a lot to do with the reduced height and size of the population, Kelton assumed. Although it was odd that a community of this size would continue to stubbornly remain in such a place if food was so problematic. Then again, the sea wasn't too far away, so they could get fish; everything else was the result of a trade situation. And what did they trade? Well, Kelton had also noticed a prevalence of pottery, with a particular blue-green color that he found intriguing. In the course of his reconnaissance, he determined that this was one of their local crafts, and the key export for the town - it was definitely the main source of trade. Intrigued, Kelton decided to dig in further.

He saw the open workshop of a man working on some pottery, and Kelton watched the artisan work for a while, as the man turned the vessel on the wheel, using his hands and a small thin board to raise and shape the sides, until it began to take the shape he desired. It was clear from the pace and consistency of movements that this was a process that shouldn't be interrupted, so Kelton watched in silence; after a minute or two the potter noticed him, and struck up a conversation while he worked. The two exchanged basic pleasantries, and discussed what had brought Kelton to town - of course, Kelton repeated the "heartbroken wanderer looking for a new life" story that he had given Franz - and he asked some basic questions about the potter's craft and process, which the friendly man was all too happy to answer. Before long, the piece was done, and ready for the oven. The potter stood from his wheel, cleaned his hands and arms in a basin, and then approached Kelton to shake his hand. "I'm Lyle. So, what can I do for you? Interested in a piece?"

"Nice to meet you, Lyle. I'm Kelton. And yeah, I'm definitely interested!" Kelton replied enthusiastically. Although he was well-aware that he had nowhere of his own, and no place to put a decorative (or even functional) piece of pottery, he needed to learn more. "What makes the pottery you make here in Odellia so special? I get the impression that people from all over buy it, and while it is certainly beautiful, I've got to ask - what is it that makes the local stuff so unique?" Lyle beamed at the interest and led Kelton over to a bench with several pieces that were sitting on display. "See these, the color?" Lyle asked. "We in this part of Odellia are the only ones in all of Lezseka that can produce this glaze. It comes from a very special resource that's local to the area - a kind of metal that we extract from our seaside caves." The potter became even more animated as he continued. "It's such a funny metal - it's soft enough to just cut away with a knife, and when processed correctly, it turns into this beautiful sea-green color. However, handled incorrectly, it explodes...so that's a bit of a trick. Not only do most places not have the raw materials, but the people in other places don't have our secret techniques, either. And trust me, it isn't easy to learn." Lyle gave a conspiratorial wink, his face shining with pride. "We've spend decades refining our methods, and becoming masters of it. "

"Wow, that's very interesting. So why not scale up? Is there a reason to keep production small-scale and local?" Kelton asked curiously. "Well, you see, " Lyle responded, "that's just the thing. It's hard to handle, and not very safe to transport for long distances. The best case is preparing the glaze and exporting it, but even that is tricky, and besides, then we'd lose the thing we actually enjoy - producing the beautiful art! So we let people come to us. Sure, we might be able to ramp up production a little and bring a bit more money in, and that would be amazing; however, we have to be realistic. We're pretty out of the way, and our facilities aren't set up for commercial processing - the few of us who are lucky enough to have dedicated our lives to our craft mostly sell to local traders and merchants, or to tourists. It's enough to get by, and allows us to pass our methods and resources down to the next generation."

They talked a bit longer, but Kelton had gotten the information he was looking for from the man. He made his purchase, of a simple necklace with the specially-colored pendant, and wished Lyle a farewell. Lyle, clearly hiding his disappointment that he hadn't made a bigger sale, kept in good cheer and returned to his work before Kelton had even made it out of the workshop. As Kelton walked, he reflected that this wasn't a bad opportunity for him to have an impact. This checked all of his boxes - figuring out how to scale and export the pottery and glaze trade would benefit them, it seemed like something that they wanted (if Kelton understood Lyle properly), it wouldn't hurt anyone, and they'd be grateful to Kelton for his efforts if he actually made a difference. Surely doing that, he could parlay the goodwill into a leadership role.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

However, specialty goods could be difficult. Kelton knew that he'd have to get to understand the way they sell their products now, who buys it, and how exclusive it really was - everything, if he was going to attempt to build and control a market. Even if this one didn't work, Kelton could tell that an area like this would have plenty of opportunities; he just needed to find the right one. Being near enough to the coast, though, it would be easy to market to merchants, and to play the rare artisanal angle in the bigger cities of Odellia and the wider area of Lezseka. Especially if he could spin a story about the danger, and the difficulty...yes, this seemed doable. Kelton was again lost in his thoughts as he took in the sights of the marketplace. Working until the sun went down, he couldn't easily venture out wider, and even in the center of the city, the paths were dark. The inn was the natural destination, and one of the easiest things to see at this hour anyway.

On his walk back to the inn, Kelton also considered the matter of the food supply. He wasn't an expert in such things, but he did have some basic gardening experience and knowledge of botany, not to mention a little chemistry. Perhaps he could work on that problem, too. It couldn't be that hard to get things to grow - after all, the town surrounded by dense forest, so clearly plenty of plants and animals had found ways to thrive. It must be a human problem, Kelton (perhaps somewhat arrogantly) decided. But a combination of being reasonably poor and also not able to be grow enough to thrive would severely limit any area's economic outlook and hope for the future. So that could be a play...show the people a brighter tomorrow, get some small initial results, then get them to really lean in and commit themselves to him.

It made sense, but it would be a slow process. No matter how good his ideas were, small-town people tend to be wary of outsiders, and he'd have to work especially hard to get their trust (especially since he didn't exactly come with a bunch of proof and credentials). For gaining trust, though - he knew just the man who could help him with that. The next day, Kelton grabbed Jeremy at lunch and led him away for a brief talk. He told him all about his vision for improving the town, and that Kelton believed that people would happily pay for the initiatives once they realized what was possible. He needed Jeremy, Kelton said, because Jeremy was a natural storyteller, and a person that others wanted to believe. "You see, " Kelton continued, "the real plan isn't to just fix up this little town and then call it good. You and I, we could build a whole municipal service up, and we know that government money is always there. We'd go from town to town, fixing problems, and we won't be doing any selling - no, people will seek us out! As long as we do good work, and keep telling people about it, they'll get excited, and we'll be able to build a small team up of our own and get a much bigger piece of the pie."

"Hmm. I'll be honest, Kelton," Jeremy replied. "That seems pretty similar to what Franz does. I mean...he finds a job, we find him, and then we work. It's a system that works for me pretty well already, so why would I change it?" Kelton nodded, expecting the question. "You're right, Jeremy; it's a similar model, with a few key differences. First, Franz looks for private money - we want town or city money. Second, he's not very targeted, but we'll only do certain kinds of things, things that have a big public benefit. Third, Franz doesn't have any kind of marketing or reputation management. No storytelling, and that's going to be a big focus for us. Most importantly, though," and Kelton wiggled his eyebrows a little, "Franz keeps a lot of the money. In this model, that money is ours." Jeremy grinned at the last statement.

Kelton continued "For now, there's not a whole lot that we do differently. We go to work, we build our wall. But I've got some ideas, and I want to figure out what will stick. In the mean time, you can start talking to the townspeople, too; warm them up to you, and to me, and give them a story that will make them want to give us a fair try. I know, there's not much reward in that, but it's easy work and people will talk to you freely enough. If we land on the right idea, then we can see about getting started. I'll give you a small finder's fee for the first project to prove out the value, and once we've got real money coming in, enough for it to be worth turning into our full-time job, you'll get a good chunk of that money. What do you think?"

Jeremy puzzled over Kelton's pitch for a moment, tossing it around in his head. "So, no risk that I'm going to lose my standing with Franz? I don't want to compete with him or anything, just in case you can't deliver. Franz is a well-connected guy." "None at all!" Kelton replied emphatically. "In fact, if this goes well, before long we'll be hiring Franz and giving him work - that should make sure that you stay on his good side. I'll even do you one better. Since you seem to be pretty committed to the guy, and I like to reward commitment - any construction that we need done, Franz will get the right of first refusal, as long as he keeps his rates reasonable. That should keep him happy enough, I think." And that was all it took; Jeremy was sold.