Reud stood on the end of the makeshift dock, watching skeletons work alongside men as they unloaded the crates filling the first of the merchant boats that had arrived at Srinaber. The already thin numbers of undead had shrunk even further with the contingent sent to the dungeon to begin the mining operation, with Tel as their support in culling any new populations of chimeras.

He really needed to work on getting a new source of corpses.

Bo stood amongst them, lifting twice as much as the rest of the undead. The super-charge he’d received in the dungeon seemed to have left a lasting impact, letting the undead utilize even more mana than he’d ever managed to before. A good thing, as he was the one responsible for dragging the great spider-bosses corpse back to Srinaber. The legs and chitin of the beast would be made into new weapons and armour for the undead, a fact that seemed to get Bo rather excited.

The core of the creature, however, Reud would be putting to use in a different project.

“I wouldn’t mind having some of them to help move cargo at every dock.” The merchant captain, Horis, said from Reud’s side, staring at the undead.

“Currently not for sale, but if you keep on visiting, that may change in the future.” Reud responded, smiling.

“Fair enough.”

“How long do you plan to stay?”

Horis shrugged. “A day at most, my lord. Just to give my men some rest on dry land, and to restock. Lord Duras mentioned you had some goods you would be willing to sell?”

“Right this way.” Jessabelle said, stepping up beside him and guiding him to where a number of items were laid out on a table.

“Interesting, is that a chimera horn I see?” Horis said.

“You have a good eye.”

“You don’t get to my age in the trading business without being able to spot things like this. I take it you have some way of reliably obtaining these if you are offering them up for sale?”

Jessabelle smiled. “That would be a trade secret. Suffice it to say, Srinaber will be a reliable source of items crafted with chimera materials.”

She lifted a comb, the back of which was set with a thin, shimmering layer of horn harvested from the wolf chimeras that still roamed the woods. Of all the chimeras the undead had slain, the wolves were by far the most numerous. There must be a minor dungeon somewhere in the vicinity of the city that was the source, but Reud had not put any effort into finding it yet. Unless the numbers of wolves rose to unmanageable levels, the time it would take for him to traipse around, trying to sense it, was just not worth it.

There were far too many projects in Srinaber that required his attention.

Jessabelle held the comb out to Horis, the man taking it and inspecting it closely. “As you can see, we have crafters that can make unique items with these materials, items you won’t find anywhere else in Rudase.”

“Unique, yes, but the craftwork leaves a lot to be desired.” Horis said, handing the comb back. “If you’d sell me the materials directly, you could make a lot more profit.”

“No, Srinaber will stay the source of these items.” Jessabelle countered quickly.

“Surely it would be better to take the guaranteed profit now, instead of gambling on future increases to the price?”

Jessabelle shook her head. “The rarity will keep the prices competitive, and our crafters will improve with time. Selling the materials directly to you will do nothing but hurt our long-term prospects.”

A smile spread across Horis’s face. “Well well, Lord Duras was right about you. No pushover at all.”

“Thank you, I guess.”

“Go on, show me the rest of what your city can offer.”

“We also have hair pins, buttons, and braces decorated with the same horn. Over here, you can see a range of pottery, glazed with a chimera-horn based delicate violet. Again, rather fetching, so I’m sure you’ll be able to fetch a grand sum when you sell these on.”

“Not bad, not bad.” Horis said, stroking his chin.

“And here is the very best piece we have to offer.” Jessabelle said, lifting the final item off the table and showing it off.

It was one of the wolf-skin cloaks, but crafted with far more care than those sported by many of the early settlers of the city. The thick, white mane of fur made up the collar, fading to grey-black for the rest of its length. Pockets had been sewn into the inside, and a row of hooks on one side and chimera-horn buttons on the other allowed the wearer to close the cloak if they desired. The edges were further woven with a purple rim, strengthening them, and outlining the grey of the fur with a pleasing dash of colour.

Horis’s eyebrows raised. “Well now, that is quite the piece. May I?”

Jessabelle handed it to him, and he turned it over in his hands, inspecting it closely and testing the stitching.

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“How many of these do you have?” He asked.

“Ten of that quality, twenty more if you are willing to buy some older designs.” Jessabelle asked.

“I’ll just take the ten, at say… five crowns each.” Horis said, handing the cloak back. “One crown a piece for the chimera-horn accessories, and say a half-crown each for the pots.”

“Let’s not waste each other's time here, we know the worth of what we’re selling.” Jessabelle said, her voice confident. “Cloaks like these, you’ll sell for at least fifteen crowns back in Avonford. Make it two fifty crowns for the lot, and we will give you favourable terms on your next visit.”

“Two hundred and fifty crowns! That’s a little outrageous, don’t you think? I’ll barely cover the cost of sailing up here at that price.”

“Horis, we know Lord Duras commissioned you to make this delivery. You’ve already had your costs covered, so don’t try that on us. Two fifty is a fair offer, and you’ll make far more than that in profit when you return to Avonford.”

The smile on Horis’s face grew wider. “You know, for you, I’ll take it. It’s been a while since I’ve actually seen something new that I can sell.”

He stuck out his hand, and Jessabelle clasped it.

“Good to know you can see a great deal when it’s right in front of you.”

“How can I ignore it, when such a beautiful woman takes it and slaps me around the face with it.” Horis said. “Maybe you can honour me with a drink or two this evening and I can show you how appreciative I am?”

“We’ll get your boats loaded once you settle your accounts with City Hall.” Jessabelle continued, pointedly ignoring his proposition.

Reud stepped forward before the man pushed it any further. “I take it there are more shipments of food on their way?”

Horis turned to him, face once again going serious. “The next one should be leaving in roughly another fortnight, and it should contain a mix of food and the other goods you wanted. Only this shipment has been paid for, however. The next you’ll have to buy directly from the captain in charge. Assuming my goods sell, I should be taking the shipment after that, in a months time.”

“Excellent, in that case I’d like to ask you to acquire something special for me.” Reud said.

“Oh?”

“I’m looking for some information on one of the other merchants working out of Avonford. A Merek and Carak. From what I hear, they’ve been fitting out boats with magebane. I want to know where they are doing it, and what exactly they intend to ship with it.”

Horis scratched his chin. “That’s a very specific thing to ask about. I can put out feelers, see what the news is, but…”

Reud held up a hand. “You don’t need to worry. Ten crowns for the information, another ten up front for your efforts.”

Horis’s eyes lit up. “In that case, we have ourselves a deal. When I return, I’ll have the information you need.”

—

“I asked you here to discuss certain information that came to light during my time in Avonford.” Reud said, looking over the occupants of the reception hall, Cecily, Rowan, Rachel, and Lilia.

“The Seekers were experimenting with forcing an affinity to manifest in children, through the combination of a mana-attuned bloodline and a particular potion, injected into pregnant women. Someone like you, Cecily.”

“Is that what they were doing?” She said, hand going up to cover her mouth. “They did this to my twins?”

Reud nodded. “And it wasn’t just to you. Apparently, this has been happening all across the villages on the Great North Road, for decades. Now, we’ve only managed to recover five such mages from the enclave in Avonford.”

Reud paused to nod at Cecily, the woman smiling back at him gratefully.

“However, that is simply the ones injected between ten to twelve years ago, given an affinity doesn’t manifest until around ten years old.”

“Oh!” Rachel exclaimed, her eyes widening.

“I see Rachel understands.” Reud said. “In these villages, potentially in the population now residing in Srinaber, are maybe dozens of children who will bloom into mages in the next few years. We need to find them and recruit them as early as possible.”

“My lord, how are we supposed to do that?” Rowan asked. “Beyond you and Lady Lilia, I don’t imagine the rest of us have any experiences with detecting mages.”

“You simply need to look at the women visited by Seekers, often having become pregnant suddenly or inexplicably, and who have some form of memory loss or confusion around the circumstances of it. There was quite a distinct pattern in the books of Littlestream, so I’m sure the records of the other villages would have similar patterns.”

“You could also ask around.” Cecily said. “People notice these things, even if it isn’t recorded anywhere.”

“Cecily makes a good point. When I was in Eastrest before the Seeker attack on Littlestream, I heard mention of a Lisa that was visited by the Seekers in much the same manner. Her yet-unborn child should also manifest as a mage in the next decade. We should find her.”

“We could also have some young mages who have manifested, and are hiding their powers.” Lilia said. “The Seekers aren’t around to root them out any more, so there may be one or two who have gone undetected.”

“Right, that too.” Reud said, smiling at her. “These Seeker experiments, no matter how unethical, do seem to have borne fruit, so we must harvest that and protect the people harmed by it.”

Reud turned back to the others. “Rowan, could you organize the search for these young mages and potential mage-mothers? Start with Lisa, we definitely want to monitor her.”

“Should we bring her to Srinaber?” Rowan asked.

“No, not yet. Just keep an eye on her for now. See if the Seekers, or anyone else, make any moves to claim her. We can always bring her in later if they don’t.”

“How about me?” Rachel said, gesturing to herself. “Should I help the search?”

“No, for you I have a different, but no less important, task. I need more bodies.”

“Bodies?”

“I need to be able to raise more minions, and for that I need a steady supply of the dead. Bring me the bodies from the burial-sites of the villages. Find out where executed prisoners are dumped. See if anyone knows of any slaughtered bandit camps, fallen villages, or other sites of death. Get me more materials to work with.”

Rachel bowed. “Yes, Lord Reud.”

“Also, see if you can start encouraging people to view service after death as a privilege. I want the people who live here to bring their deceased to me to be raised, instead of whatever rites they may once have followed. Sow some rumours, mention offhand how amazing it would be, that sort of thing.”

“I think I can manage that.” Rachel said.

“Good. Then, that will be all.” Reud said, dismissing them.

“What is it?” Lilia asked once the others had left, looking at Reud’s frowning face.

Reud sighed. “I hate to admit it, but the Seeker experiments worked. They figured out how to force an affinity to manifest. Just imagine what we could do with a whole population of mages…”

“I know, but is it worth the risk of the harm that may be done to these people?” Lilia said.

Reud shook his head. “No, not yet. Especially given that I don’t know the specifics of the potion they inject at the final stage to induce the mana. I need to know more if I want to make use of their research.”

“I understand.” Lilia said, walking up beside him and laying a hand on his shoulder. “Just don’t let your pursuit of knowledge make you lose sight of the people around you.”

“With you by my side, never.”