Breakfast the next morning was quick, we planned on teleporting to the halflings after breakfast. The king had shared their kings location with me before I left, they didn’t have a centralized city, most were traveling merchents, tricksters and performers. Most other races saw them as a necessary evil, they tended to do things their own way and didn’t really care about the legality of it.
Known for their luck and preference for living in luxury. Their caravans were know for being rolling luxury homes made using spacial magic. That was their true talent, spatial magic, the best storage devices, homes or anything else that held more than it should were halfling made. They also had a passion for wandering so they created amazing maps, not only appreciated for their accuracy but the artistic embellishments they included. Nothing they did was ugly, it always carried a sense of beauty.
Dealing with them was always a challenge, with no sense of fear and the incredible luck they were tricky to pin down in a fight. Their wit and care free view of the world made negotiations near impossible. Most of the time if you bought from them and wanted to keep your sanity you just paid what they asked and left as soon as possible.
The king would be no easy feat to deal with, then again freeing him from a dependency on the human might be a trump card he couldn’t resist. This meeting wouldn’t be an easy conversation like the dwarves, it would be a trade of some sort. One never dealt with a halfling in any other medium, they wouldn‘t respect you any other way. If you somehow got the better of them? It was such a rarity that when it happened you received discounts from them across the land. The strangest part of that was they all knew, recognized you by sight. There was no insignia or any other symbol, they just knew.
The new bolt hole was only an hour away from a small encampment of caravans, circled around a large fire pit. To all outward appearances it looked like a normal halfling train passing through an area, that was until you looked at it with magic sense. Then you got a real view of what was going on, the entire caravan was actually one large spacial home. The disguise was brilliant, more impressively it broke down into separate wagons so it could be moved as a train. The problem was, how did I get in?
“Just walk up and talk to him.” Badb spoke up with his solution and again I felt like I was overthinking everything. “It’s a business deal, one that could affect his entire race, he’ll listen.”
“Yeah that would probably work but it takes away from the hole creepy guy in the wall effect.” I tried to protest, I didn’t know birds could make raspberry’s. Turns out magical ones can.
“Pffffft the dwarf new you were there all along.” He cackled. “There’s no doubt he expects you with the way halflings are. He found a note someone wrote that blew into his camp one night or something else as unlikely.”
“Fair point.” I had to give him that he was probably right. So that’s what I did, I walked the short distance to the opening between the caravans and waited. It didn’t take long and a well dressed halfling stepped out from one of the wagons. He was more round than most I had met, though that only numbered in single digits. His luxurious clothing probably cost enough to buy a town and the pipe sticking out of his smiling round face looked to be more gold and gems than pipe. That didn’t stop the heavy scent of expensive smoke weed drifting up from it.
“Master mage I presume?” His voice had som humor to it but the smile slipped a bit when I didn’t seem surprised.
“King of the folk?” The twinkle in his eye didn’t fade but there was the slightest twitch to one of his eyes at being recognized.
“Seems we both know what’s about this day, come let’s discuss in a more congenial atmosphere.” He waved me to follow him into the caravan.
Inside the space opened up to a massive mansion, there is no other way to describe it. There was a literal gold fountain in foray, that’s ignoring the fact that the forya was was bigger than most houses. That’s the type of luxury I was looking at, excessive to the hundredth degree. He lead the way through a maze of hallways finally opening a for inviting me into a study. Dark wood, leather chairs, a gem studded fireplace surrounded by more books than I had ever seen.
He offered me one of the over stuffed leather chairs, it was larger suited to my stature. When he sat across from me I noticed a subtle trick of spacial magic made us the same size. My core caught the magic involved and processed it, learning the spell in a way. The table between held a crystal decanter that looked to be made of one large diamond. Without a word he poured us each a glass of the amber liquid, the heavy smell of peat wafted from the glass. A single malt would be my guess, out of curiosity I took a sip. Defiantly single malt and at a guess my palate said aged well over twenty years.
“Good scotch.” I commented.
“Trading with the dwarves of Cannich, they brew the stuff there and I acquired a taste for it.” He smiled over his glass, I could almost feel his excitement at this battle of wits.
“The pleasures of travel.” I agreed taking another sip, still observing the rules of the game. He who speaks first loses.
“It is the way of the Folk.” He agreed amiably. “It’s been a singular pleasure of mine to experience some few treats this domain has to offer.”
“It’s a goal of mine to travel more, though recently I’ve had the pleasure of some travel.”
“A pleasure for the young, now a days I travel less and enjoy the fruits of my labors more.” He grinned returning my thrust with a sharp repost. “It seems I have heard something about a half elf traveler. A stranger from the wilds, or so I’ve been told.”
“Some simple trips, barely starting on the road of wealth.” I stepped back disengaging to regroup then blur forward with a slash. “I must admit the world seems to be more dangerous than I had heard.”
“Oh aye cities destroyed in is wake an he says it’s just dangerous.” My thrust scored making him grin widely. “Fair exchange master mage, please call me Bawdit. My I call you Syn?”
“Of course and the pleasure is mine master Bawdit.” I smiled back at the affable man. The first battle had gone to me but the war was still undecided. “Shall we move onto the main course?”
“Please, while I do have time there are other duties I must attend. Would you care for food?” His offer was genuine but the pressure on his time was a tactic.
“Only a fool would turn down the hospitality of the Folk, but if your time is too short we can move on?” A polite return, he would never allow it to be said that he lacked time to offer proper hospitality.
“Not at all, time must always be made for the pleasures of the palette.” His grin was genuine, recognizing I had caught him. He rang a bell beside him on the table, the magic swirled in the air again and a table of delicacies suddenly appeared between us. “Eat, please no need to be shy.”
“My thanks.” I nodded my head in respect and took a small plate collecting a few of the flavors offered up on the table before continuing. “For such a fine host though I will get more directly to the subject. I will be freeing the last two dragons soon enough. My concerns are about war and peace after the fact.”
“My thanks for the honor.” He recognized that I had discarded a play in return for the food and appreciated the move. “War has never been our way, as you know but what is your fears regarding peace?”
“Money and trade of course. The power dynamic of the domain will shift and for a short time things could be difficult. I would like to avoid interrupting the business of the folk as much as possible.”
“There will be a time after to tighten our belts a bit, but that is the way of business. How would you propose to elevate this?” I had gotten his attention with that, now the hook need to be swallowed before I could set it.
“You know the way it once was, regarding shards?” I asked, knowing that he might have been alive back then. His personal shard might even be from wild dragons.
“Remember it well, free to do as we choose without the thumb of a human king on our scales.” He smiled at the fond memory. “Sadly the time after your actions and before the natural balance could be brought back would be the hardships.”
“But if you had the shards to see yourself through? Would there be a need to disturb trade with the humans?”
“If that were the case then nothing would alter our business. Though there has always been those people that the folk refuse to deal with.” He was right and I knew it. A few people had made the mistake of causing them problems and they had been banned from trading. The difference is when a halfling banned you from trading, it was your family and it was forever. No amount of gold or gifts could alter it once that ban was put into place.
“Nothing would ever call into question a ban from the Folk.” I wanted to make it clear I had no interest in their practices.
“Nothing? An if some of those once banned who we have been forced to deal with were banned again?”
“None of my concern.”
“The shards for those years, the cost would be?” And there it was he had swallowed the hook, now I just needed to set it. Slowly taking a bite of a pastry, I let out a soft moan in pleasure at its taste. The folk truly did have exquisite taste.
“Let me be clear Bawdit, I will not have anyone Folk or other under my thumb for this. I want now rule or authority.” He needed to know he wasn’t trading one thumb for another. “The dragons will return and the balance will be reset, then I will be no more than another half elf. I want a fair value in trade for the shards and I want peace and trade for the domain, nothing more.”
Bawdit sat back, taking a moment to study me while sipping his scotch. I could see him testing the truth of my words, then weighing me for trading. He seemed to come to some conclusion after a minute because he changed from cagey normal trader to concerned ruler.
“Fair trade for the shards is the tough spot friend. How can I place a value on something that had been used to force rule for so long? What coin do you place per shard?”
It was a tough question, one I didn’t have an easy answer for. With the Folk I couldn’t just give them the shards, they would be insulted and refuse outright. To them it would be an insurmountable debt. A glimmer of an idea struck me though, I knew the shards they got only partially went to grant magic to thier kind, some of them were used to create the caravans.
“You’re right there is no price in coin, but there is always value in barter.” I grinned and for the first time in the history of the domain a halfling flinched at the mention of barter.
“Name your price.” He almost slumped in his chair, recognizing I had him. We both knew it wasn’t a fair battle, I held all the cards and while the Folk could have touched out the intervening years it might have ended them. There were less Folk in the domain than any other race and their only means of existence was trade. If they had to go without for a couple of years their numbers would have declined further. I didn’t know why but something about their race kept the population low.
“A grand caravan, just one. For it I will supply you with one hundred and twenty a year until the balance is returned.”
“Truly?” He sat bolt upright, staring at me. I could see it in his face, he was afraid to believe what I said.
“Truly friend Bawdit.” I smiled assuring him I meant it. “A grand caravan is no small thing, I know but it is my price.”
“Done!” He laughed happily. “You don’t know what this means to my kin. No of course you don’t, how could you. You know of course the shards are used for the caravans as well as our mages?”
“Yes.” I could tell this was more serious than I had known. Something here was important, very important to him.
“What you don’t know is that these caravans aren’t just our luxury, they are part of us. Before a couple can have young they must have a bound caravan with enough space. If not they’ll never get with child.” I sat stunned at this, my anger with the human king reached a new level. Using the shards as a population control was a new level of evil.
“I had no idea.” My anger must have shown on my face.
“The king doesn’t know.” He laughed harshly before continuing. “Wouldn’t tell him a thing about the Folk.”
“Oh, sorry.” It made sense that he wouldn’t know, I should have thought of that.
“No it was comforting in a way to see your anger at the idea. It’s makes me more comfortable moving forward.” His comforting smile eased my mind. “A grand caravan will take a while to build, honestly we don’t have the shards to even start now.”
“I have to keep my end first and free the last two, and remove the king. My next stop is he gnomes, than the elves. I don’t want to start a war and have to find a way to avoid it. At least for the first while, the humans would be whipped out without leadership oaf the elves stack as soon as the king dies.”
“And after the balance returns?” His look was more curious than anything else.
“War has always existed, nothing I can do will end all of them. The best I can hope for is the balance returns for all of it. Let them go back to killing one another evenly.” I laughed
“It’s a wise man who recognizes his limits.” He smiled toasting me with his drink. “If you’re in no rush the grand caravan will take a few months after we get the shards, but the first one will be yours Syn, with my thanks.”
“There is one other thing.” I began, this wasn’t as difficult but it was something we needed to discuss. “I want the Folk to stop helping hunt dragons and their hordes.”
“Done.” He answered before I could even think about explaining. At my look of surprise he explained smiling. “Now that we see where it leads I recognize that needs to stop.”
“Thank you.” I said genuinely appreciating his depth of understanding. There was more conversation and a lot more drinking but by the time I managed to stagger back to the bolt hole I had the halflings agreement in full.