Still grumbling, Lyle managed to get all four of the potters together, and only when they were gathered did Kelton begin talking. "Gentlemen, I was speaking with Lyle, and he told me about your lack of recognition, and your problems in finding a good stable way to sell your goods. I'd like to change that for you, if I can." "Oh, would you now?" A withered, bony old man named Markus replied. "Why is that? If you think we're just easy targets, you can stop now. We don't need to be robbed by anyone else, thank you. I know I've given away too much, for too long, and I'm sure the rest of these gentlemen feel the same way." Eager nods reflected their agreement, and Markus started to turn away.

"Hold on, hold on," Kelton said. "I don't want you to give anything away at all. In fact, let me put my cards on the table. I'll open with the deal, and if you don't like that, we can stop right now and I'll apologize for wasting your time. I want to be your agent - a seller on your behalf. I'll only take ten percent of the difference between what you get right now, and what I can get you. That way, if I fail, you lose nothing, but if I can do what I say I can, we all win." That had the intended effect - the men softened immediately.

It didn't take long for Kelton to explain his plan; it was a mixture of storytelling-based marketing (playing up the danger and the rarity) to drive up the end price, and selling to dealers rather than to travelling merchants, with the possibility of going to a dedicated store of their own if Kelton could find the right location and customer base. He was as persuasive as he knew how to be, and they had little reason to resist. By the time thirty minutes had passed, Kelton had become the exclusive agent for all four of the men, for the next six months. Kelton also promised that if he failed to deliver revenue in six months topping what they had gotten in the previous twelve months - as verified by their books - he would remove the exclusivity clause.

With that bit of business done, the men began to disperse, in much better spirits than they had been when the day began. Kelton and Lyle walked back towards Lyle's home and workshop, and Kelton mentioned to him that he thought it would be great if he could understand more about their process, so that he could tell a better story. Of course, he'd let them keep the exact secrets of their method - they didn't need to tell him everything, he insisted. Still, Kelton asked, could he learn a bit about the journey that they go on from start to finish? Now that they were business partners, Lyle couldn't think of much harm in educating Kelton a little, but warned him that there were parts that he simply wouldn't show him. Kelton easily agreed. Since it was such a beautiful day, and neither had anything more pressing that needed done, Lyle offered to take him down to the coast.

The pair of men made a quick stop at Lyle's house and picked up a lantern (although it was still morning time) and a small pickaxe, as well as a large bucket. Lyle told Kelton to carry the lantern, while he took the rest. They made a beeline to the shore, then turned and hiked along the coast a bit, until they came to the mouth of a small cave. At Lyle's prompting, Kelton lit the lantern, and they headed in. The cave was wider inside than Kelton had expected, and very deep. They walked slowly, but for several minutes, open passageways seemed to branch off at irregular intervals, and they still hadn't reached the back wall. Lyle knew exactly where he was going, and hardly seemed bothered by the debris, bugs, and sludge that surrounded them.

Finally, the men reached a small alcove, and Lyle gave the order to stop. Kelton noted that it was slightly warmer in this part of the cave than it had been at the entrance, but couldn't determine if that was due to being deeper underground or something else that he didn't understand. Lyle suddenly swung his axe at the wall a few times, and extracted a small rock about the size of his fist. It was mostly dull, but where the pickaxe had pierced the soft metal, it reflected brightly in the light. He dropped the rock into the bucket, and then repeated this several more times, until he had a small collection of the chunks of ore. While Lyle had worked silently, when he turned back to Kelton he had a slight smile on his face as he handed him the bucket, saying "Don't let this get any water in it. It'd be a real shame."

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Kelton had started to get an eerie feeling that the heat was coming from the walls themselves, and the damp air was making him feel a little strange, too; he was glad that Lyle had started them on their path back out. The trip had been intriguing, he supposed, but not one he was eager to repeat in person. Once they had made their way to the mouth of the cave, Lyle paused again, and pulled a small pocket knife from his pants. He proceeded to carve off the tiniest sliver of the metal, and handed it to Kelton.

"This is the base metal of the glaze. It's called lithium. Now here...let me show you something." Lyle dipped his hands into a small puddle of water, and let a few drops fall onto the sliver in Kelton's hand. It immediately got warm, and started to let off a thin white smoke. "That's the party trick," Lyle joked, "but here's why you have to be careful." He wiped his hands well on his pants, then carefully took the lithium back from Kelton. They picked up their supplies and walked a few more feet towards the edge of a large pool left by the tide; Lyle tossed the sliver across like he was skipping a rock. It let loose a small explosion that made Kelton jump with fright.

"The danger here is real, son. You don't need to know much about how we produce the glaze, but know that what we do is much, much more complicated and precise than simply tossing a small piece of rock in the water. That help?" Kelton expressed his assent, and they packed up again. Kelton thanked Lyle for demonstrating the extraction process and demonstrating the danger, saying that he was certain that he could explain highlights of the trip to make their work even more exciting to people. The two started back up the small hill, and proceeded back to the village.

Neither Kelton nor Lyle tended to be particularly talkative, so the walk passed in relative silence. Kelton was happy enough to be left to his own thoughts, which were as numerous as ever. How deep do those caves go? He wondered. Kelton didn't know anything about caves, but it was hard to draw a connection between this unique cave system and the strange clearing that the village was located in. Could the two be related somehow? He'd have to investigate eventually, although that wasn't exactly his top priority. Instead, he thought more about how to sell the pottery Lyle and his compatriots produced. Kelton could get them better prices if he was able to go to a wealthier city himself and present the goods, tell the tale, and of course, do the negotiation right then and there. Doing so would have some additional complexity, he realized.

First off, Kelton would have a hard time making such a trip while working with Franz, as he was certain it would take him away for several days, maybe even a week; he was loathe to give up his only source of income, and he wasn't sure that Franz would exactly welcome him back if he left. He remembered Franz's early emphasis on how important it was to be reliable. Plus, Kelton would have to figure out how to transport the goods, getting them packaged and safe to carry in volume. The related problem to that was transport. The ridiculous isolation of this seaside village had worked well for hiding him when he needed it, but now Kelton was irritated by how difficult it would be to actually get anywhere - it's hard to kickstart an economic revival without trade, though, so he'd have to do something. Besides, it wasn't like there were no roads; other merchants made the trip, but from what Kelton had learned, the townsfolk paid top dollar for the goods brought to them primarily because of how difficult the journey was, roads or no.

Kelton's stomach rumbled, which made think about food for the journey, as well. The townspeople rarely left their village, and without much in the way of crops, what they didn't buy from travelling merchants they typically consumed as they needed it - meat especially. But unless he had missed it, they didn't seem to have any good preservation techniques, other than burying the meat in barrels of salt extracted from the seawater. Maybe I should convince them to build a smokehouse, Kelton thought. One more thing to add to an ever-growing list.