After working for another twenty days, I finished the jail cell, and just in time too. Later in the day, the dwarven envoy arrived. I figured it would be just a handful of dwarves who arrived, but to my surprise, it was actually about thirty individuals, including the dwarf I negotiated with before and Shasta. They didn't just come to collect the crystal either. They arrived with various gifts of their own. Alcohol and metal tools made up the majority of their gifts.
I also learned that the dwarf I negotiated with was a big shot in the dwarf kingdom. When we were negotiating before, initial discussions had us coming under the control of Kao Ostark. Well, that dwarf is apparently him. He seemed to be in good spirits as he entered the village, and was seemingly impressed with the rate we've expanded things in the village since he was here last.
In the evening, we officially met with Kao and Shasta in Zaka's new house to discuss matters.
"Kao is impressed with the improvements you've made in such a short time." Shasta said as we sat down.
"Well, we've had a lot of incentive to expand our population." I replied, "Anyway, outside of the crystal what other matters are there to discuss?"
"There are a few topics outside of just the crystal that we were hoping to establish in the coming days. First and foremost, we'll need to draft up formal documentation and international agreements to establish the exact relationship our two countries have, along with any stipulations that might need to be included within those agreements. After those are discussed, we can see what, if any, of the other topics are still valid." Shasta said, while reading from a piece of parchment.
"I suppose formalizing everything is probably a good idea, especially before we have any further interactions. Of course, I'll probably need to be informed somewhat about the workings of the dwarven kingdom as we discuss matters..." I replied.
----------------------------------------
After three grueling days, we've hammered out formal documentation for most of the important topics like trade, immigration, criminal extradition, sovereign borders, and military agreements. Criminal extradition and border discussions were easy and pretty straight forward. We both agreed to extradite any criminals from either country back to their homeland when requested. Of course, things don't always work out that way, but that's a discussion for when a problem actually arises.
As for border discussions, it was actually quite informative, in addition to being easy to discuss. It seems that, within the mainland where the dwarves come from, maritime borders in the ocean aren't really considered, because few people bother to travel in it due to the general risk of leviathans. Thankfully, the dwarves were willing to accept some maritime borders being drawn around the islands as being our territory. The distance varies somewhat, but the water between the three islands that we own is considered our territory, forming a bit of a bubble around the outside of them.
On topics of trade, the dwarves have a 15% tariff on all materials going into their country. The tariffs are generally handled by the merchants themselves, but need to be paid in dwarven currency. As for ourselves, we've decided on setting no tariffs on trade coming to us at this time. Without a formal monarch or government, it's not like collecting a treasury is going to matter for us right now. We did however set a 5 year expiration on this trade treaty, and it'll need to be renegotiated as that deadline arrives.
Immigration was a tricky topic. While Kao doesn't seem to mind personally, the dwarven king was quite adamant about not allowing any goblins or other demons into their mainland, but is alright with the singular island that is under Kao's direct control having them if he wishes. So for the time being, their borders are practically closed, outside that one island. As for us, we're actually going to set up a pretty strict immigration policy ourselves.
Those who wish to immigrate can apply on the island controlled by Kao, fill out an application, and we'll review the applicants before allowing them into our territory. First, I don't want this to turn into a colony of dwarves. I don't have much against them, but I also would like to keep things within our own control, and not be under the influence from a foreign power. Second, we don't want to bring people in who wouldn't actually want to be here. Conditions aren't exactly amazing here right now, and a lot of technology is lacking compared to a medieval society. As of right now, working and living here is somewhat harsh, and any immigrants need to have good motivations for enduring that.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
When we arrived at military agreement discussions, I got even more of a glimpse into the workings of the dwarven kingdom. Their king doesn't actually make any military decisions. He's in charge of domestic policies, and has a relatively small army that is stationed at their capitol. As such, no country-wide military agreements are ever established. Instead, each independent military leader makes their own agreements, which includes their own armies. Internally, most of their armies all have defensive pacts with each other, but due to the difficult terrain in their homeland, having independent military decision making is important.
Given that fact, we could only make military agreements with Kao during negotiations. We settled on an agreement related to the islands. If an outside power threatens either our islands, or Kao's singular island in his territory, then the other party would be expected to provide military assistance. Honestly, it seems to be a more than fair deal to us, since we won't get dragged into any mainland fighting by happenstance.
By the end of the agreements I had a question that had been burning in my head, but I didn't dare risk asking until after the agreements were all signed. However, after they were signed off I faced Kao and asked, "Alright, now that all the paperwork is done, why be this generous? I'm grateful, but from what I can tell, demons seem to be seen generally as a scourge."
After Shasta translated, he let out a chuckle and replied in dwarvish, and I had to wait for Shasta to translate again, "There is something unique going on here. An eagle protected you, and you hold the secrets to crystals like ParTor. Many dwarves see the eagles as something akin to gods. I know they are mere beasts. They are fickle, but intelligent. If you can keep them on your side, you can show loyalty to others as well. As for generosity, I'd be inclined to be less generous personally, but Shasta thinks that big things are likely to come from here if it's given time to prosper. If it doesn't, then it's relatively easy for me to merely abandon the island outpost we'll set up, and let the world decide for itself your fate."
When his statement finished, I definitely understood his reasoning. It's likely to cost him nothing to actually give us these concessions, but if we end up being a problem, he can just look the other way, and no one else would actually fault him for breaking any agreements he made with demons. Without making us a formal protectorate, he's still managed to maneuver us into that role none-the-less. He's quite shrewd.
----------------------------------------
The next day, we sat down and discussed trade. The dwarves are going to set out tomorrow, and make the six day journey through the forests to the bay where they've docked, taking the crystal with them. They said that they could haul more items back if we wanted to trade for anything. This time around, they've brought a merchant with them who can do some appraisal, and give us rough estimates of what we could get in exchange for things.
First and foremost, I want crop seeds and domesticated animals. Diversifying food sources is always a good idea, since it reduces the chances of total collapse of the food supply. Crop seeds wouldn't be too expensive, but enough domestic animals to start a food supply would actually be a bit difficult to transport to the islands. It wasn't impossible, but it'd be expensive.
Two potential exports we could provide weren't very valuable, namely, fish and swamp beets. However, since we can always restock on fish, it's worth trading some of it. Salt is actually worth a bit more pound for pound, so we'll also be trading some of that as well. The most valuable item though is some of the metal ingots that Katarko made. I'm willing to part with some of them, but metal is also non-renewable, and we have lots of things that we'll need metal for in the future, so I don't want to ship away our entire stockpile.
After negotiating with the merchant for a few hours, I've decided to sent them off with about 20% of our ingots we have left, along with a decent amount of salt and preserved fish. In exchange, we'll be getting a barrel of seeds for three different crops that the merchant suspects should be able to grow here, and 9 medium sized livestock animals, eight females and a breeding male in total. They're grazing animals, so they hopefully can sustain themselves on general plant life growing on the island. After he described the animals, they sound like a mix between a deer and a sheep, so I'm intrigued to see what they taste like.
In the evening, I worked with some of the dwarves that were brought along to get the crystal properly packed away in lightstone for them to transport, ensuring that they could actually remove the lightstone as well using their own magic. Once everything was verified on that front, all the other trade goods were packed up so that the dwarves would be able to set out first thing in the morning.